NMR systems have been in use for many years and can be used to provide imaging and/or analysis of a sample being tested. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,160,398, 7,466,128, 7,986,143, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/914,138 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/104,721 describe a variety of NMR technologies, and are incorporated herein by reference. Various different types of NMR include medical NMR, often referred to as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MM), and surface NMR for measuring properties of earth formations. While there is some overlap in the technologies that may be applied in MM and surface NMR, the samples being measured and the environments in which measurements are performed are different, leading to many differences in the technologies applied.
In general, surface NMR measurement involves utilizing or generating a static magnetic field within a sample volume, emitting one or more electromagnetic pulses into the sample volume, and detecting NMR responses from the sample volume. In some cases, surface NMR measurement involves emitting multiple electromagnetic pulses in rapid succession and measuring the NMR responses between the electromagnetic pulses. The measured NMR responses provide useful information about the sample volume.
Surface NMR measurements may be used to detect, for example, the abundance of hydrogen contained within an underground sample volume, and NMR relaxation times within a sample. Detected hydrogen abundance and NMR relaxation times may be used to characterize many properties of fluid-bearing formations underground, such as the porosity, total quantity of fluids, fluid composition, pore size, and permeability of the sample. Three types of relaxation times of interest are referred to in the art as T2*, T2, and T1.
There is a need in the art for better surface NMR measurement apparatus and methods. In particular, improved technologies for estimating NMR relaxation times as described herein will provide better characterization of fluid-bearing formations underground.